Duck Egg Sponge Cake

ducks' eggs and hens' eggs

This morning I came home from the March Essential Edibles Food Swap with three beautiful, grey duck eggs.  I had never cooked with duck eggs before but remembered reading somewhere that duck eggs make the most wonderful sponge cakes, so that is what I decided to do with them.

The recipe below for Victoria Sandwich comes from The Country Women's Association Cookbook: Seventy Years in the Kitchen.  I like this recipe because it doesn't require the eggs to be separated or for the flour to be sifted multiple times, yet the result is a beautiful, light cake.  The recipe is, of course, for hens' eggs, but I substituted my three ducks' eggs with no difficulty.

I used an electric mixer to beat the eggs, but you could use an egg beater as the recipe suggests.  I filled my sponge with raspberry jam and whipped cream and dusted it with icing sugar.

Victoria Sandwich

Beat 220g (1 cup) sugar and 3-4 eggs in a bowl for 10 minutes using an egg beater.  Sift together 150g (1 cup) plain flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder and add to the egg mixture.  Melt 1 teaspoon butter in 4 tablespoons boiling water and stir into the cake mixture to combine.  Spoon into greased sandwich tins and bake in a 180 degrees C oven for about 20 minutes.  Ice or fill as desired.